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Lemon and pineapple farming

Lemon and pineapple orchards on hill slopes and fallow land. A hali of lemons is Tk 20-30 in Dhaka in September and Tk 100-120 in Ramadan; Madhupur pineapple is Tk 20-25 each wholesale.

  • Last reviewed: 19 September 2026
  • Version 1
Lemon and pineapple farming

Lemon and pineapple farming

Starting capital
৳41,000 – ৳1,75,000
Editorial estimate
Manpower
1 – 6 people
First sale
400 – 730 days
Editorial estimate
Break-even
16 – 30 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Farm · Medium difficulty

About the business

Lemon and pineapple grown together on the hillocks, tea-garden slopes and fallow land of the Sylhet division. The Department of Agricultural Extension counts about 1,742 hectares under lemon in Moulvibazar alone. Plant once and the tree bears for years, so the money goes in at the start. But this business is not about the price, it is about the swing. On 15 September 2026 a hali (four) of lemons retailed in Dhaka at Tk 20-30. On the first day of Ramadan 2026 a good hali cost Tk 100-120 - nearly Tk 30 for a single lemon - and the day after Eid it fell back to Tk 50-100. The cruelty is that in the very months when the price peaks, the grower's trees are bare; February and March are tending months, not picking months, and only those who held stock back take the money. Pineapple runs differently. At the Madhupur wholesale hats in 2026 a pineapple fetched Tk 20-25 each against Tk 30-35 for the same size a year earlier. In Rangamati the upazila agriculture officer puts 15,000-17,000 suckers on an acre and Tk 80,000-100,000 net profit per acre after all costs. The trouble is that pineapple ripens together - with ripening hormone the whole field turns in four or five days, everyone reaches the hat at once, and the price collapses. Two months at Ramadan for lemon, the monsoon weeks for pineapple: that is when the year's money is made, or missed.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳3,000 – ৳12,000Editorial estimate
Selling price৳20 – ৳120 / unitOfficial source
Variable cost৳6 – ৳15 / unitEditorial estimate
Gross margin30% – 45%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue400 – 730 daysEditorial estimate
Break-even time16 – 30 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle0 – 7 daysEditorial estimate
Waste / loss10% – 30%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity10 – 45Editorial estimate

What you need to start

  • A sprayer, weeding tools, baskets and crates, and access to a bhatbhati or pickup to move the fruit. In Madhupur the grower carries it to the hat himself.Equipment
  • Pineapple suckers - 15,000-17,000 to the acre. Madhupur runs three varieties: Calendar or Giant Kew (4,375 ha in 2026), Joldugi (2,245 ha) and MD-2 (18 ha). The price of a sucker could not be verified.Starting stock
  • Trade licence from the city corporation, municipality or union parishad: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, non-judicial stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000 by trade type. Not needed to sell your own crop; needed once you buy from others' orchards or trade.Licence
  • Reading when each plant will fruit and picking in waves. When everything ripens together the hat price collapses, so holding the ripening back is the real skill.Skill
  • A sucker source and the upazila agriculture office's advice, plus a named aratdar at the hat - Garo Bazar and Jalchhatra in Madhupur, Banarupa Bazar in Rangamati.Supplier
  • Sloping, free-draining land. Moulvibazar has about 1,742 hectares under lemon; Madhupur upazila had 6,638 hectares of pineapple in the 2026 season. An acre holds 15,000-17,000 pineapple suckers.Workspace

How the work is done

  1. 1Pick the land. Both lemon and pineapple want sloping, free-draining ground - a hillock face, a slope beside a tea garden, or fallow land around the homestead. On land where water stands, the root rots.
  2. 2Go to the upazila agriculture office and settle the variety. Madhupur grows three pineapples - Calendar (Giant Kew), Joldugi and MD-2 - while kagoji and elachi are the common lemons.
  3. 3Buy the suckers and plant to a count. An acre takes 15,000 to 17,000 pineapple suckers; in Madhupur a grower put 22,000 plants on four bighas.
  4. 4Plan the money knowing the first year gives nothing. A pineapple naturally sets fruit after about 60 leaves; until then it is all outgoing.
  5. 5Decide for yourself about the chemicals. A spray at 28 leaves forces fruiting, and another ripens the whole field in four or five days - but the taste and smell go, buyers are turning away and the price is falling with them.
  6. 6Fix your hat and get to know its aratdars. Garo Bazar and Jalchhatra in Madhupur and Banarupa in Rangamati are the pineapple wholesale points; for lemon it is the Srimangal and Moulvibazar markets.
  7. 7With lemon, plan the trees around the February-March market. The price triples or quadruples in Ramadan, but that is exactly when most growers' trees are bare.
  8. 8Arrange the consignment to Dhaka. Wholesalers buy at the orchard or the ghat and truck the fruit to arats in Dhaka, Chattogram and Cumilla.
  9. 9Take a trade licence from the union or municipality if you start buying and reselling. Selling only your own crop does not need one; buying other people's fruit to resell does.
  10. 10Write down the cost and price of every consignment. The same-size pineapple fell from Tk 30-35 to Tk 20-25 in one year, and without a record that loss is invisible.

Seasons

  1. JanLow
  2. FebNormal
  3. MarNormal
  4. AprHigh
  5. MayHigh
  6. JunHigh
  7. JulHigh
  8. AugHigh
  9. SepNormal
  10. OctLow
  11. NovLow
  12. DecLow
HighNormalLow

Where it works well

  • Strong fitHabiganj · Pineapple and lemon orchards on the hillocks of Bahubal and Chunarughat, with easy consignment along the Dhaka-Sylhet highway.
  • Strong fitMoulvibazar · The agriculture extension office counts about 1,742 hectares under lemon in the district, and sacks go to Dhaka from the Srimangal and Juri orchards.
  • Strong fitRangamati · 2,660 hectares under pineapple in 2025-26 producing 90,439 tonnes, moving out from Banarupa Bazar by boat and truck to the whole country.
  • Strong fitSylhet · Hillocks and the slopes beside tea gardens suit both crops, with the divisional city's markets close at hand.
  • Strong fitTangail · Madhupur upazila had 6,638 hectares of pineapple in the 2026 season against a target of about 250,000 tonnes, and Garo Bazar and Jalchhatra are among the country's big wholesale hats.
  • PossibleBandarban · Red soil and slope suit pineapple, but the cost of moving the fruit out is high.
  • PossibleChattogram · Pineapple grows in the hilly areas and the city itself is a large market.
  • PossibleGazipur · Pineapple grows on the fringe of the Madhupur tract and the Dhaka market is right there.
  • PossibleKhagrachhari · Pineapple orchards on the hill slopes, with the Chattogram arats close by.
  • PossibleSunamganj · Hillocks and fallow land are available, but transport becomes hard in the monsoon.

Risks and cautions

  • HighDemand: The pineapple price fell by about a third in a year. The size that fetched Tk 30-35 wholesale at Jalchhatra hat in Madhupur in 2025 had to be sold at Tk 20-25 in 2026. Growers and traders give two reasons: heavy hormone and chemical use has stripped the taste and smell so buyers have turned away, and because the hormone ripens everything at once the whole district reaches the hat in the same week. When the fruit used to arrive in stages, both sales and profit were better.
  • HighDemand: In lemon, price and yield run in opposite directions. On the first day of Ramadan 2026 a good hali cost Tk 100-120 in Dhaka, against Tk 20-40 for a medium hali a fortnight earlier. But a Srimangal grower, Janak Debbarma, says the trees are bare in exactly those weeks - it is the tending season, and only ten or fifteen people had held any stock for Ramadan. The day after Eid the price dropped back to Tk 50-100. The grower with the biggest crop is usually not the one who gets the peak price.
  • HighSpoilage: Neither fruit waits once it ripens, and there is no cold store. Tangail's pineapple has its GI tag but the district still has no cold storage for it. Heavy rain ripens and spoils the fruit fast, and with nowhere to hold it the grower must let it go at whatever price is offered.
  • MediumWorking capital: The first crop is a long way off but the spending starts on day one. A pineapple does not set fruit until it has about 60 leaves, and a new lemon tree stands empty for a good while. Through that gap the land rent, fertiliser and labour keep running, and it is that pressure that pushes many growers into forcing fruit with hormone.
  • MediumDependency: Older residents of Madhupur say traders from outside lease land there to grow pineapple and push the hormones and chemicals harder for extra profit. The ordinary farmer who grows with little or no chemical carries a higher cost and has to ask a higher price, and buyers will not pay it.

Sources

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Lemon and pineapple farming in Bangladesh: cost & prices · AyRojgar